At a loss :(

[bigbuckdown]

I set up my new 200 gallon in august and everything was going great till December. Slowly my birdsnests started sheddig their skin,then my montis all started to die along with pocilipora. Then my anemone started splitting like crazy and my acros started to die off. Then my chalices and of all the corals that I figured would live through a total meltdown my toadstool melted away. I have checked EVERYTHING and cant come up with anything on why they are dying I thought I had it under control and started adding a few acros around 3 weeks ago. I thought my ph was the problem but I got it steady at 8.1 for about a month. So I wake up today and more acros tips are dying off and Im losing all the color in the corals so I can say I dont have it under control.
Alk 8.5 steady
cal 430
po4 .03
no3 15
mag 1350
All tests done through salifert and Hanna checker
Things I have tried so far
Took my calcium reactor offline and started doing kalk in my ATO
Testing ALK everyday
lowered light intensity
Raised PH
Changed salt brands
Used a polyfilter and no color change
changed from BRS GFO to Rowaphos
Changed out carbon more frequently
Im losing all my corals. Only things still doing fine are a few zoas I have and my weed mushrooms. Any thoughts are welome

 

[saltyair]

What has changed since December?
What is your wc frequency? What are you dosing?
what kind of lighs and photo period

 

[fishpureluck]

Do you have a lot of leathers? When the leathers in my mixed tank got too big, they started releasing something in the water that was killing everything in my tank. I took them out, and everything started coming back. I had the same as you, good tank parameters and I couldn't figure out why. Then I pulled a toadstool that was almost 2 feet across and all the cabbage corals, and it fixed it. No more leathers in my mixed tanks, they go in the FOWLR 300. Not sure if this is the issue with yours, or just a coincidence with mine. Good luck!

 

[Timfish]

Considering your nitrate level I'm inclined to think initially your phosphates dropped to low.(1) (The error factor with the Hanna your phosphates could be .02 or less (I prefer Elos Pro Phosphate).) This is speculation but after having so many different animals die off you may now have some disease process that's going to make it difficult to keep many corals.

(1) http://jeb.biologists.org/content/214/16/2749.full

 

[bigbuckdown]

I have LEDs run from 1pm till 10pm. I do 25 gallon water changes per week. I started dosing zeo snow and I vodka dose. Started those 2 after the initial distruction because as I was having massive coral deaths my NO3 went up. Only thing that has changed since Dec when most my corals were dying is change of GFO brands,vodka dosing salt brands and PH has gone up. Tim fish my po4 was elevated to about .13 before I changed my GFO to rowaphos. I changed that about 2 months ago

 

[Coral Dilema]

Copper perhaps?

 

[Coral Dilema]

nevermind, polyfilter should have shown that. missed that part in your description.

 

[Arkayology]

How are coral colors? Deep or light? I bet your nutrients are too low. IME your test kits are lying and you are much lower phos and nitrate than you want to be.

 

[Timfish]

. . . Tim fish my po4 was elevated to about .13 before I changed my GFO to rowaphos. I changed that about 2 months ago

Sorry! I took that to be historical not current. BTW I would not consider .13ppm P03 a problem (this is not to be construed as advocating high phosphates) as this system, http://youtu.be/_Uf5IyXvajg had .14 when this video was taken and was still fine 9 months later when it was dismantled.

 

[Blueline12]

Sounds like a possible Alk swing started the initial die off and the you did a lot of different things and made different changes possibly too quickly. Changing salt brands in the middle of a problem with the tank is never a good thing. I have always had problems when changing salts.

It's hard not to try to "fix" a problem but sometimes we do too much or too fast and make the problem much worse.

Also, a long elevated period of Po4 could have been the issue that starts the problem.

Lastly, where are you getting your water changer water? Any possibility of it being tainted (I.e. Choloramines or other contaminant)?

Take it slow with the changes and the die off May slow down. Looks like you got your levels under control now so just keep them steady and see if it recovers. It may take time though.

 

[jda]

Sounds a bit to me like LED white light issue. After a while, the corals just cannot handle the excess red/yellow/green and will start to die - there is a very recent article on the red light and the problems that it causes.

There can be a success-red-herring since, for a while, the corals can expend the energy to fight off the light, but the go down hill after that.

What did you have the whites of your LED set at? Was it more than 10-30%. Also, what kind of fixture with what types of diodes and count?

 

[Spyderturbo007]

I'm currently experiencing the same problems. All my corals just die for no reason at all. I've been battling it for what seems like forever. I never had good color, but now they are all just dying. I've exhausted every option and can only come the conclusion that the live rock or sand I purchased was somehow contaminated with something I can't test.

You can give my thread a read for some suggestions that may or may not be applicable to your situation.

 

[saltyair]

this is what I would suggest

new gfo and carbon
how much vodka are you dosing - i dose vinegar and saw burnt tips when I increased the amount. I would slowly decrease the carbon dosing.
also lower your alk in the mean time to 7 till you find the carbon dosing sweet spot.

I have LEDs run from 1pm till 10pm. I do 25 gallon water changes per week. I started dosing zeo snow and I vodka dose. Started those 2 after the initial distruction because as I was having massive coral deaths my NO3 went up. Only thing that has changed since Dec when most my corals were dying is change of GFO brands,vodka dosing salt brands and PH has gone up. Tim fish my po4 was elevated to about .13 before I changed my GFO to rowaphos. I changed that about 2 months ago

 

[power boat jim]

I would stop all the various dosing you are doing and stop the gfo, it sounds like Russian roulette with water chemistry. Go back to a regular water change schedule, keep the kalk addition going, stick to one kind of coral for now, keep a little carbon running and when the kalk cant keep up with the demand of the the tank put the reactor back on line. KEEP THINGS SIMPLE. Then give the tank a couple months to recover.

 

[jgalen0025]

I would stop all the various dosing you are doing and stop the gfo, it sounds like Russian roulette with water chemistry. Go back to a regular water change schedule, keep the kalk addition going, stick to one kind of coral for now, keep a little carbon running and when the kalk cant keep up with the demand of the the tank put the reactor back on line. KEEP THINGS SIMPLE. Then give the tank a couple months to recover.

+1000
When ever your trying to trouble shoot things, having the least amount of variables is the only way to fix it unless you get lucky. After you take everything out and use only skimming and water changes, then if it still happening atleast you know it is not the additives. Write down all the remaining variables and eliminate them one by one not all at once. Anyone of your additives could be contaminated ect ect

 

[cichlid1098]

I had the same problem for a while until I realized that my shallow sand bed was the reason. I started taking a maxi jet 1200 with a piece of hose and started blowing out the sand on a regular basis before water changes.

 

[Aww7979]

It could be electrical. How about a grounding plug?